Dan Davis.
“ Free!
”― Dan recollecting his brief awakening in the power plant.[src]
Dan Davis was a Human bluepill athlete who was the main character in The Animatrix short film, World Record. In the story, he had apparently dedicated a huge portion of his life to breaking a world record for sprint speed.
Davis was a natural sprinter with the capability to run incredibly fast, so much so that he was able to potentially break the barrier of the Matrix and the Real World. This has caused him to be under surveillance by Agents who have repeatedly detected him to have an unstable signal.
Dan Davis running
At a track meet event, he became briefly self-substantiated by pushing himself to the limit, the resulting distraction from the flash of reality caused him to trip and nearly injure himself. Three agents had to possess the opposing runners in order to catch up with him, but he was fast enough to outrun them. Undaunted, he continued to run and just after breaking a world record, saw the world for what it was. He completely wakes up in the power plant only to have a Docbot reintegrate him moments later.
As he returned to the Matrix, he once again fell heavily injured by the sudden trip to and back from reality and collapsed, severely injuring himself. He is last seen in a wheel chair aided by a talkative nurse in a hospital somewhere, before using all his remaining strength just to stand up, crippled, to remove the possibility of another breakout by the Machines.
Interpretation[]
- Dan Davis may have been named after the Matrix trilogy's composer Don Davis, and sound designer Dane Davis, both of who worked on The Animatrix, including World Record.
- Dan seems to be heavily inspired by Olympic runner Jesse Owens.